Professor Allen Cheng, an infectious disease expert at Monash University, warned of the dangers of the plague and said this year’s outbreak has been ‘unusual’ – because it is airborne.
He wrote in a piece for The Conversation: ‘It’s not possible to eradicate plague, as it is widespread in wildlife rodents outside the sphere of human influence.’
Plague, caused by the Yersina pestis bacteria, killed hundreds of millions of people in three devastating outbreaks, including the Plague of Justinian in the 6th century.
It is easily treated with antibiotics in the current climate – however, experts are still concerned it will cause eternal havoc because it is constantly mutating.
Kyle Harper, a professor of classics and letters at the University of Oklahoma, said biological evolution is ‘cunning and dangerous’.
Professor Harper, author of The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire, told Project Syndicate: ‘There still is no vaccine; while antibiotics are effective if administered early, the threat of antimicrobial resistance is real.
‘That may be the deepest lesson from the long history of this scourge. Biological evolution is cunning and dangerous.
‘Small mutations can alter a pathogen’s virulence or its efficiency of transmission, and evolution is relentless.
‘We may have the upper hand over plague today, despite the headlines in East Africa.
‘But our long history with the disease demonstrates that our control over it is tenuous, and likely to be transient – and that threats to public health anywhere are threats to public health everywhere.’
Two thirds of cases in Madagascar have been caused by pneumonic plague, which can be spread through coughing, sneezing or spitting and kill within 24 hours.
It is strikingly different to the bubonic form, responsible for the ‘Black Death’ in the 14th century, which rocks the country each year and infects around 600 people.
Others worry it will eventually hit the US, Europe and Britain, leaving millions more vulnerable due to how quick it can spread through populations.
And with the plague season expected to run until April, scientists believe there will be another spike of cases in the coming months.
Scores of doctors and nurses have already been struck down with the disease, and there are growing fears hospitals will be unable to cope if it continues its rampage.
But local officials are adamant the outbreak is slowing down as the number of new cases is on the decline.
